EXCUSE THIS HOUSE

 

Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there.

Ours boasts of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere!

For smears are on the windows and little smudges are on the door.

I should apologize, I guess, for the toys shrewn on the floor.

But I sat down with the children and we played and laughed and read;

and if the doorbell doesn't shine, their eyes will shine instead.

For when at times I'm forced to choose the one job or the other . . .

I want to be a housewife - but first I'll be a mother!

 

-Author Unknown

Sis. Karen Wheeler, Victoria (McKenzie) Ecclesia, British Columbia, Canada, sent the following comments which we share with you all (with her permission):

I wanted to tell you about my house. I love the poem I saw on your web page about the house for children - not polished floors (unless you've just waxed it and the kids go skating in their socks!), and about the testimony the dirty dishes make of the good food cooked in that house! As you can probably guess, I'm not likely to win any awards for the cleanest house on the block! I figure that after the dinner's been cooked, the kids put to bed, and the lunches for tomorrow made, I'd rather sit down and talk with my husband than do the dishes! The dishes will always be there - along with the vacuuming, dirty floors (it's amazing the kids aren't starving when you consider how much food makes it into them and how much ends up on the floor, walls, ceilings, etc.).

 My favorite time of the day is when I can sit down with my husband and share our day together. Brother Gordon Dangerfield from Victoria told a couple who are friends of ours at their marriage preparation class that the most precious gift we can give our children is a happy healthy marriage. Always remember that your marriage should be more important than your children - after the kids are in bed for the night! Always take time for each other.

So to let everyone who comes to visit know what kind of house I have - and to apologize to them for the stepping stone technique they have to adopt to make it through the minefield of toys in the living room - I put up some signs. I thought I'd share them with you for your web page.

 My house is a mess

But come in and converse,

It's not usually like this,

Usually it's worse!

-Unknown

My house is clean enough to be sanitary,

And messy enough to feel like home.

-Unknown

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing,

Is like shoveling the walk,

Before it stops snowing!

-Phyllis Diller

 

So I point these signs out to visitors as they come through the door and add the message, "If you don't mind my mess, I don't mind your company!" Besides which I figure that visitors should come to see you, not your house!

 

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